The goddesses attempted to gain my salvation.

Perhaps it doesn't exist.

------

The meeting was scheduled for the afternoon of the following day.

All seven sons arrived on time.

Apart from the day the king election ceremony began, when the King of Quranden personally announced the territories of each side, today is the day when all members are present.

Alvin naturally became the host and leader of the meeting.

The other members had no objection to this.

After all, Magadan suffered a calamity, and as someone directly involved, he had the most right to speak on the matter.

"Thank you, brothers and sisters, for taking time out of your busy schedules to participate in this meeting."

"On behalf of Magadan, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to everyone."

After a few simple pleasantries, Alvin got straight to the point.

"I think everyone should know what happened in Magadan."

"After discussions with the Ministers of Internal Affairs of Magadan City, we decided to combine this series of missing persons and the erosion of the earth and call it the 'Black Mist Incident'."

"Next, let me share my thoughts on the Black Fog incident."

"The source of the black mist is still unclear, but one thing is certain. That is, the black mist will have a devastating impact on all living beings. Once the earth is corroded by the black mist, it will completely lose its vitality. Not only will crops be unable to be grown, but even living beings that set foot on it will soon contract a terrible disease and die."

"Currently, there are no publicly available reports of black fog encroachment from other countries. Therefore, it can be assumed that the main area of ​​black fog activity is within the Empire."

"The reason is still unknown, but if we continue to allow the black mist to erode us, it will ultimately affect the safety of all of us, and even the survival of the empire."

Among the seven, the oldest, 35-year-old Malen, spoke first.

"Alvin, I understand what you're saying."

"Since we've all gathered here to resolve the Black Mist incident, I have a question. The Black Mist is so powerful, and its corrosive ability is insurmountable. So, how should we fight against it?"

Mullen's words resonated with everyone.

Everyone looked at each other, and finally all eyes were on Alvin.

Alvin squinted and clenched his fists tightly.

Seeing that Alvin did not answer immediately, Mullen sighed and spread his hands.

"Knowing the danger of the black mist but having no means to fight it means that no matter how long we discuss it, it will only be a waste of time."

"And what I hate most is wasting time."

Alvin glanced at Malen and said.

"There are no means to combat the black mist yet... unfortunately, none."

Maren slammed his fist on the table.

It was very strong; the tabletop creaked and groaned as it was slammed down.

"waste time!"

"Alvin, I came here out of kindness to hear your opinion because I saw you were crippled."

"I didn't expect the result to be so disappointing."

Maren said nothing more and stood up to leave. He hadn't gone far when Alvin's voice sounded behind him.

“Once the black fog is generated, it is difficult to eradicate it with existing methods.”

"However, if we can predict the location before the black fog descends and eliminate all the causes, we can achieve the same effect, which is to prevent the black fog from spreading."

Maren stopped, snorted, and sat back down in his seat.

Alvin let out a long breath and continued.

"To predict the black fog in advance, one must understand why the black fog appears in the first place."

"Let me state my conclusion first."

"The black fog is not a natural phenomenon, but a man-made one. Therefore, we should not focus our attention on the black fog, but on people."

"We don't have enough intelligence right now to analyze their purpose. However, we can deduce their criteria for choosing targets based on the known locations where the black fog occurs."

After he finished speaking, a servant brought over a document. Alvin opened it in front of everyone and looked around at them seriously.

"Currently, within the Empire, excluding villages and towns blocked by blizzards and inaccessible, there are a total of fifty-seven villages and towns that have been reported as out of contact."

"Thirteen of them were discovered in the past month. The remaining forty-four villages and towns... were all discovered in the last two days."

As soon as the words fell, the whole audience was shocked.

This information was obtained by Alvin after he privately contacted all the descendants of the Thiers family, obtained a contact list from the Minister of the Interior, and confirmed it with each of them.

This answer left everyone wide-eyed.

Because this number is just too much...

Forty-four villages and towns have lost contact in the past two days...

Under normal circumstances, they could attribute it to negligence on the part of officials who were supposed to be reporting regularly. But now, with the crisis of the black fog looming over the entire empire, such a large-scale loss of contact with villages and towns inevitably raises suspicions.

After observing the expressions of everyone present, Alvin continued.

"Based on this intelligence, I have summarized the following points."

"First, they will target small towns with a population of less than 30,000."

"Secondly, transportation is inconvenient, and it takes a long time to transmit intelligence. But they didn't expect that in the Empire, in addition to the special agents used to transmit information, we also use falcons and snow pigeons to transmit information."

"Or rather, the falcon and the snow pigeon are the messengers we truly trust."

"The above two points reveal their behavioral logic. First, they choose sparsely populated and relatively isolated places as their targets. Perhaps I don't know what they are afraid of, or whether they simply don't want to attract attention."

"Judging from the number of missing towns, they are either numerous or extremely few, possessing the ability to teleport quickly. In any case, they have the powerful ability to make many towns disappear in a short time. However, perhaps because of this ability, they are extremely arrogant."

"So arrogant that they thought they could circumvent the Empire's intelligence network simply by choosing some sparsely populated places."

"Unfortunately, they miscalculated."

Alvin closed the file and continued.

"And the third, and most important, point."

"That's their route of travel."

"It is worth noting that they deliberately avoid the capital when choosing targets. At least at this stage, the information we have is that there are no missing persons cases in towns within 200 kilometers of the capital."

"I'm not sure why they made that choice. Or rather, whether it has any impact on our current course of action."

"With the above three points in mind, I have compiled a list of places that are very likely to become targets."

The attendants handed out six documents to everyone present, listing the locations within their jurisdictions where black fog incidents might occur.

"Next, it's our chance to turn the tables and take the initiative."

Alvin's eyes burned with intense fighting spirit.

"Our opponents are human beings just like us."

"As long as someone is human, there is a way to defeat them."

That's all I wanted to say.

Chapter 259 The Other Side of the Door

The subsequent meeting agenda was to discuss how to defend against attacks.

Without a doubt, having more ordinary soldiers is meaningless against an enemy that spreads black mist.

The best countermeasure is still the seven-pointed star.

Spencer is dead, and of the remaining six, none can match him in one-on-one combat.

Therefore, the result of the discussion was that, in addition to the members of the Seven-Pointed Star, they needed another powerful force as external assistance.

Currently, the Duchy of Ferrante, with which they have close commercial ties, the Church of Bysma, which is a neutral force, and the registered adventurers of the Adventurers' Guild are their only options.

As for the final decision, that's up to them.

------

The meeting lasted all day.

The next morning, everyone packed their bags and took a carriage back to their respective jurisdictions.

Seek help to fight off the black fog.

Alvin, in his wheelchair, was the first to leave, without any hesitation. Bebian wanted to talk to Tracy, but noticed Doyle staring at her with a complicated expression.

Feeling annoyed, I made up an excuse and kicked him out.

However, just after they got rid of Doyle, another person appeared and disturbed their time alone.

"Lord Tracy, hello."

He was a middle-aged man dressed in luxurious clothes.

Tracy recognized him; he was the Minister of the Interior who greeted her when she first arrived at the palace.

The name seems to be... Onsas.

"Hello, what can I do?"

Onsas bowed respectfully, then smiled at the two men.

"Lord Tracy, King Gulandon wishes to see you."

"If you have time, may I visit the palace?"

My father wants to see me?

Tracy was very puzzled.

Because in her view, Glendon had always been sexist.

Of all his children, he liked his eldest brother Malen the most, followed by Alvin.